THE CUTTING EDGE / Two Houses, One Lot / HIGH-END GAMBLE / No more Home Depot specials -- builders hope to tap top of market with two gems on Potrero Hill

Amelia Glynn, Special to The Chronicle

Published
4:00 am PDT, Sunday, September 18, 2005

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The backyard of the 705 Utah Street home listed at $1.9 million, and seen in the background is the 2311 19th Street home listed at $2.2 million built by Structura General Contractors.
Event on 9/1/05 in San Francisco. JAKUB MOSUR / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

CuttingEdge11_06_JMM.JPG
The backyard of the 705 Utah Street home listed at $1.9 million, and seen in the background is the 2311 19th Street home listed at $2.2 million built by Structura General Contractors. ... more

Photo: JAKUB MOSUR

Photo: JAKUB MOSUR

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CuttingEdge11_06_JMM.JPG
The backyard of the 705 Utah Street home listed at $1.9 million, and seen in the background is the 2311 19th Street home listed at $2.2 million built by Structura General Contractors.
Event on 9/1/05 in San Francisco. JAKUB MOSUR / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

CuttingEdge11_06_JMM.JPG
The backyard of the 705 Utah Street home listed at $1.9 million, and seen in the background is the 2311 19th Street home listed at $2.2 million built by Structura General Contractors. ... more

Photo: JAKUB MOSUR

THE CUTTING EDGE / Two Houses, One Lot / HIGH-END GAMBLE / No more Home Depot specials -- builders hope to tap top of market with two gems on Potrero Hill

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Misha Breyburg is giving his company an extreme makeover, homes edition. "They aren't for everyone," he says. "But it only takes two."

Breyburg, who is vice president of business development for Structura General Contractors, is referring to two luxury spec homes on Potrero Hill, tucked between 19th Street and what would be Utah Street, were it not for the bustling Highway 101 freeway butting up against the property.

A luxury home by the freeway? Impossible.

More than a few Bay Area architects and developers thought so. The double lot on 19th and Utah and the original small, plain-faced, single-family home there were passed over for years, until Structura's founders, Michael Plotitsa and Misha's father, Edward Breyburg, purchased them in 1999.

Accustomed to constructing multiunit buildings, which the younger Breyburg calls "high-end Home Depot specials," the company hired a draftsman to draw up plans for four condominiums. Then things became more complicated.

What had seemed like a straightforward proposal disintegrated into a drawn-out battle with neighbors who wanted to protect their views, their attorneys and the city's planning department.

The project took a new twist in 2000, when Misha Breyburg saw the plans and voiced his concerns to the founders that, based on the reductions in square footage required to meet the planning department's proposed compromise, the company would probably lose money if the structures were ever built.

-- -- --

When I first met Breyburg, he was wearing a tight white T-shirt and a black Hustler baseball cap. He is unapologetically Republican and proudly drives an eight-cylinder, gas-guzzling Mercedes. He describes himself as financially conservative and socially liberal. He voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

When he was 6, His family immigrated to the United States from Russia to start a construction business. Now 34 and very much an American, Breyburg nonetheless possesses a stereotypical immigrant mentality and believes that opportunity abounds. Getting ahead, to him, is simply a matter of going after what you want.

"My father and his partners built their business on sheer hard work," he said. "Before he came to the States, my father had never even held a hammer. I remember him coming home with his fingers cut and bloody. I don't think you need to work that hard to be successful."

Breyburg has had his hands in everything from retro Eastern Bloc T-shirt designs to sushi restaurants (he co-founded Blowfish in San Francisco) and now, the development and construction of luxury houses.

-- -- --

He knew architect James Phillip Wright from the years he lived in one of Wright's properties in Los Angeles, so he pitched him on the idea of working with Structura to build on the problematic Potrero Hill site.

"When I first visited the properties and took a look at the original, approved drawings, let's just say the whole thing looked pretty bad," Wright said. "If it weren't for my friendship with Misha and his commitment to the project, I would have never agreed to take it on."

Wright, best known for his Malibu beach bungalows and classical Beverly Hills mansions, worked with Breyburg to turn what was essentially a larger-than average lot into two single-family homes that share the use of a four-car garage that runs the length of the 19th Street property.

Wright is a believer that often, the more complicated the project, the better the results. "For me, the most difficult site to design for would be one in the middle of the desert with nothing around it," he said. "Undesirable circumstances force me to come up with unexpected solutions and these unusual details that become the most valuable and appreciated aspects of my work."

Although the designs of these tandem homes were influenced by many of the same environmental characteristics, they are architecturally very different.

The 705 Utah St. house emphasizes the relationships between vibrant colors and creative shapes, while the more traditional layout of 2311 19th St. showcases uncommon uses of sustainable building materials layered against creative landscaping and high-end finishes.

-- -- --

Edward Breyburg and Michael Plotitsa started Competent Builders in San Francisco in 1986 to serve the middle-class multiunit market in the Bay Area.

Sam Raiter, now vice president of operations for Structura, became a partner in 1989.

Meanwhile, Misha Breyburg was going to school -- in his words, "becoming Americanized." He attended Golden Gate University, where he studied sociology and marketing and worked a brief stint with a marketing company during the dot-com boom. Like many, he lost his job during the bust.

His break with the corporate world led him back to the family business in 2002, but not without friction.

Breyburg brought with him new ideas about marketing and running an American construction business. He persuaded his father and Plotitsa to re-brand the company, changing its image of constructing multiunit buildings in the outer Sunset and Richmond districts to building and developing luxury spec homes in the hipper neighborhoods of Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights.

To gain a better understanding of the real estate market, and because "it didn't make much sense to buy and sell through another agency," Breyburg received his real estate license in 2002.

Property in Bernal Heights and Potrero Hill is more affordable for Structura, compared with the Marina and Pacific Heights, Breyburg said.

-- -- --

"The zoning constraints heavily dictated the form of both homes -- Utah Street in particular," Wright said of the three-bedroom, three-bath cliffside home.

Several errors in the original, approved drawings also led to some interesting outcomes. The space allocated for the stairway that leads from the main living area to the master bedroom was not large enough to accommodate a standard staircase, so Wright created a winding stair with fan-shaped steps. "We pushed the limits of the stair code to squeeze a unique but functional staircase into a very tight space," says Wright.

The Utah Street home is an amalgam of three distinct designs, represented by three connected cubes of contrasting color and size.

Its outward forms and colors speak directly to its inner styles and functions. The home's detached design and large, light-filled living room give center stage to the panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks and Marin hillsides.

The streetside entry path passes through an enclosed water garden (complete with waterfall to soften the noise from the freeway) created from natural outcroppings of rock and earth. It leads to the heavy glass front door and first visual design environment -- a bright, carmine red stucco cube. Inside are the dining room and wet bar. A terrace and rooftop spa occupy the upper level.

Sandwiched in the center of the home is a wenge cube (pronounced WENG-ge, a dense, chocolate-brown African wood), which houses the kitchen on the main floor and the master bedroom and bath upstairs.

Curved, graduated steps from the kitchen culminate in the third cube -- the west-facing living room. Its corner fireplace, wide views, 14-foot floor-to-ceiling triple-paned windows and arched ceilings make it at once spacious and intimate. The silent movement of the highway below juxtaposed against the backdrop of the cityscape creates the perfect intersection of tranquility and entertainment.

For the 19th Street design, Wright used sustainable building materials in modern and often unexpected ways. He chose engineered lumber (made from the waste from sawmills) for the staircases, exposed beams, window and door trims, and other structural components.

Usually covered by drywall, this environmentally friendly product was transformed into an interior design element that provides textural and tonal contrast.

Parklex siding, a European composite wood-panel siding system, lines the facade in San Francisco row-house proportions, achieving a pairing of modern, sustainable materials with traditional form. The exterior detail work incorporates Trex, a material made from a combination of reclaimed wood and plastic.

To provide privacy and natural color contrast, Wright constructed a wire mesh cage filled with soil and native wildflower plantings that borders the gently curved main entry staircase. (Think giant Chia Pet.) Although initially contained within the mesh structure, the plants will eventually grow past the wire to create a solid, green living structure.

Two large decks off the top-floor living room take in the 270-degree views.

"These homes took a lot more work and effort than other projects, but they were a lot more satisfying," said Raymond Ferreira, chief foreman for Structura. "I was skeptical of the use of materials like Trex for finishes, but now I like the way the door frames and window trims jump off the wall. Some aspects of building these houses were like creating special effects in the movies."

-- -- --

"Developers are often not interested in architecture and design," said Breyburg. "They want to maximize square footage, and they don't mind if they obstruct views and anger the surrounding community in the process. So much of development is about money."

Six years in the making, the Potrero Hill homes were listed at $2.2 million and $1.9 million in August.

Construction took two years, and cost between $300 and $400 per square foot.

The Utah Street house is in escrow, Breyburg said last week, and the 19th Street house remains on the market.

"We would like to continue building these types of structures as both the developer and contractor," said Plotitsa. "Financially, it makes a lot of sense." The two houses are expected to return upward of 40 percent on investment because they are essentially two properties on one lot.

Although luxury residential homes are securing good returns, Breyburg says more middle-of-the-road buildings can still be constructed and sold with a lot less time and money at stake. "What we are noticing is that by building homes like these, we are building a brand," says Breyburg. "Calls and requests for our services are beginning to multiply."

When both houses sell, Breyburg plans to take a month off to vacation with his Russian sweetheart, who lives in Moscow. He hopes to come home engaged.

About the series

This is part of an occasional series called "The Cutting Edge," stories about Bay Area architects and builders who are doing one-of-a-kind projects that transcend habitat and approach art.